Tuesday, March 19, 2013

OK,
LA is not Siberia...but after an unusually chilly winter, Classical
Underground is ready to celebrate the arrival of Spring with an
eclectic program of interesting new repertoire and classical and
romantic favorites.

Anton Smirnov

A
star was born at our last concert when young pianist Anton Smirnoff
made his CU debut with a rollicking rendition of Stravinsky's
Petrushka. Anyone who was there will be thrilled that this highly
impressive Colburn student is returning to play works of Rachmaninoff,
Liszt, and Prokofiev, before he heads off to the Queen Elizabeth
Competition in Brussels.

Eduardo Delgado

Our
dear friend Eduardo Delgado is renowned for the Argentinian piano
repertoire, but it is really Bach and the romantic composers that are
closest to his heart. He will perform one of Bach's sunniest works, the
Italian Concerto, as well as Mendelssohn's Variations Serieuses.

Moni Simeonov Pepron Pilibossian

CU
favorite Moni Simeonov occasionally favors us with rarely-heard (here,
anyway!) gems of Bulgarian composers, and he continues that
exploration with the great Pancho Vladigerov's Chant and Vardar,
accompanied by fellow CU regular Pepi Pilibossian on piano.

Evgeny Tonkha Anna Drubich

Another
duo quickly becoming CU faves are cellist Evgeny Tonkha and
pianist/composer Anna Drubich. They will perform works of Granados, De
Falla, Piazzolla, Popper, and one of Anna's own compositions, "Night
Song."

Ben Lulich

Continuing
on that note, because Spring is time to celebrate LIVING music, Pepi
returns with Ben Lulich, the wonderful clarinetist of the Pacific
Symphony, to perform the Sonata for Clarinet and Piano of Easley
Blackwood, a still living, still teaching composer at the University of
Chicago.

Although
the weather is expected to be warm, the nights are still cool, so
please dress warmly! As always - bring your spirits, food and drink for
you and your friends to enjoy. Please RSVP via Paypal. If you have problems with PayPal - don't wait - email us right away!

Classical Underground is proud to showcase a new painting by Christopher Pugliese

"Mother Earth" oil on canvas 80" X 76"

"Mother Earth" 80" x 76" oil on canvas

A New York
painter, Christopher Pugliese is one of the leading masters of a newly
emerging movement in Contemporary American Art that I call NOVOREALISM.
Uniting a group of young figurative painters, it reflects a collective
artistic search at the end of post-modernism toward a different
expressive language -- marked by a command of classical form, highly
developed tonality and realist life-like colors as a vehicle of
expressing the current state of sensibility and attitude towards
dramatic shifts in our society. Christopher is a rarity among
contemporary representational figurative painters, capable of conceiving
and successfully executing a large-scale thematic composition
combining multiple plastically-connected figures filled with movement
-- a task similar in its overriding complexity of artistic and
technical challenges to climbing Mount Everest, and requiring
uncompromising life-long dedication.

Christopher
recently had the honor of a retrospective solo exhibition at the New
Britain Museum of American Art and is a subject of its accompanying
catalog.

"Mother Earth"
represents Christopher's most recent find on this exciting, continuous
high road, and I am particularly excited welcoming such an
extraordinary contemporary artist and brother-in-ART.

Mission Statement

We feel THAT what is missing the most in today’s world. In great debate weather ART has a future in a commercialized world of ours, we say ART is the Future.

It has to be ART, though true and pure, to make it through. Gone is the tiring age of fake, pump and pretense. Gone are the murky waters. All else stripped – ART stands in all its naked Relevance.

We believe in ART. Not as just another way of making a living, but as the very Way of Life.

We are the Underground and we stand in a subversive opposition to all and every accepted tacitly way the commercially driven society treats ART. We consider ART being a form of ultimate subversion in a greed-glorifying world and we argue a singular importance of ART outside commercialism and corrupt institutionalism within the society in crisis.

ART shall bring back what bankers had stolen from the society – the common purpose being anything else other than militant, blatant greed.

We are Classical and we stand on the shoulders of combined labor and sacrifice of cultural giants humanity managed to produce despite all its shortfalls and who were able to surpass all constraints of time and fads of the moment. The essence of their timeless creations, which is pure and true ART, stands as final testimony to in-suppressible powers of human spirit bearing extreme relevance to our time.

We stand in firm belief in fresh vitality and visceral strength of Classical, Humanistic in nature, content, philosophy and worldview for our truly modern audiences and viewers.

We are there to support and to amplify the voice of anyone across disciplines who we think is instrumental in this process.

With the Clarity of Intent we will find new ways ART can sustain itself and expand in these troubled times as Artists - some of true Heroes of Society - shall be able to enjoy the fruits of their intense, hard labor and sacrifice which is a pure Labor of Love. To that end we all work and contribute in a collaborative spirit in name of ART and Friendship. We will do everything to share ART and spread the word, as ART is the ever-flaming torch in a society facing Storm.